We introduce Gutzwiller-correlated wave functions for the variational investigation of general multi-band Hubbard models. We set up a diagrammatic formalism which allows us to evaluate analytically ground-state properties in the limit of infinite spatial dimensions. In this limit recent results obtained within the Gutzwiller approximation are seen to become exact for these wave functions. We further show that the slave-boson mean-field theory for degenerate bands becomes variationally controlled at zero temperature in infinite dimensions. Lastly, we briefly comment on the variational approach to the Anderson transition in strongly correlated electron systems.
We introduce Gutzwiller-correlated wave functions for the variational investigation of general multi-band Hubbard models. We set up a diagrammatic formalism which allows us to evaluate analytically ground-state properties in the limit of infinite spatial dimensions. In this limit recent results obtained within the Gutzwiller approximation are seen to become exact for these wave functions. We further show that the slave-boson mean-field theory for degenerate bands becomes variationally controlled at zero temperature in infinite dimensions. Lastly, we briefly comment on the variational approach to the Anderson transition in strongly correlated electron systems.
We investigate Gutzwiller-correlated wave functions as variational ground states for the periodic Anderson model. We extend a recently developed technique for the Hubbard model to the case of two hybridized bands with degeneracy N. We calculate expectation values in the following limits: dilute system (single-impurity case), large degeneracy N, and large dimension d. The mean-field results using the slave-boson approach of Coleman and of Kotliar and Ruckenstein are reproduced in the large-N and large-d limit, respectively. These techniques, therefore, obey variational principles at T=0 in the respective limits and their applicability for T>0 is naturally limited to the Fermi-liquid regime. Evaluations of Gutzwiller-correlated wave functions using the ``Gutzwiller approximation'' are seen to become exact in the limit of large dimensions. A systematic expansion in 1/d can be performed for N=2. In general, corrections are small, of order 1/(dN).
We present a systematic formalism for the variational evaluation of ground-state properties of Hubbard-type models in finite dimensions d. The formalism starts from generalized Gutzwiller correlated wave functions, which are then studied in a systematic (1/d) expansion around the limit of high dimensions (d=\ensuremath{\infty}). The limit of d\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty} has recently been introduced by Metzner and Vollhardt (MV) for itinerant lattice fermion systems. The approach, presented in this paper, is particularly efficient since results in d=\ensuremath{\infty} are obtained without having to calculate a single graph. Our results confirm the finding of MV that counting approximations in the spirit of the Gutzwiller approximation become exact in d=\ensuremath{\infty} for translationally invariant wave functions. This type of approximation is no longer exact for more complicated (e.g., antiferromagnetic) wave functions. In addition, we completely reproduce the results of the Kotliar-Ruckenstein path-integral approach to the Hubbard model. Performing a (1/d) expansion for the Gutzwiller wave function, we show that the lowest orders in (1/d) are sufficient to reproduce all numerical findings in d=2,3 quantitatively. We therefore conclude that the limit of d=\ensuremath{\infty} is a very fruitful starting point for the study of finite-dimensional systems. On the basis of our study we propose new variational wave functions for the numerical investigation of antiferromagnetism in the Hubbard, the t-J, and the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model. For the first two models we calculate in d=\ensuremath{\infty} only, for the Heisenberg model we also derive corrections up to order (1/d). To this order we obtain complete agreement with linear spin-wave theory. Since our trial state is based on a fermionic description of the Heisenberg model, we interpret this analytically determined wave function as Fermi sea of spin-1/2 quasiparticles (``spinons'').
A new analytic approach to the evaluation of ground-state properties of Hubbard-type models in terms of the Gutzwiller variational wave function is presented. It is based on the observation that expectation values in terms of this wave function may be expressed by sums over different lattice sites. This makes the application of Wick's theorem and the resulting contractions extremely simple, since the latter involve only anticommuting numbers as in a Grassmann algebra. Expressions for the momentum distribution ${n}_{\mathrm{k}\ensuremath{\sigma}}$ and the Hubbard interaction in terms of a power series in a particular correlation parameter are derived which are valid for all dimensions. An explicit diagrammatic evaluation of the coefficients is described. In one dimension these coefficients may be determined to all orders which yields an approximation-free calculation of nk and ground-state energy E for arbitrary density n and interaction strength U. In the case of a half-filled band and large U, hitherto unexpected nonanalyticities are found. The results allow for the first approximation-free assessment of the properties of the Gutzwiller wave function. It is shown that the well-known Gutzwiller approximation may be derived diagrammatically, too. The approximation is seen to yield the exact results for expectation values in terms of this wave function in the limit of infinite dimensionality.
This work covers three lectures on Gutzwiller wave functions for correlated electron systems. In the first lecture, some basic ideas on model Hamiltonians and their motivation are outlined, Gutzwiller's variational approach to Landau Fermi-liquid theory is sketched, and, as a first application, the theory is applied to the one-band Hubbard model where the Brinkman–Rice metal-to-insulator transition is found. The second lecture is devoted to the perturbative calculation of expectation values. In this rather technical part the variational analog of Wick's theorem, Feynman diagrams, and the linked-cluster theorem are introduced. The important differences between the variational approach and the standard Green function technique are the absence of a time-dependence and the flexibility to select the expansion parameter of the variational perturbation theory. When this flexibility is used appropriately, not a single self-energy diagram must be calculated in the limit of large dimensions, i.e. in the limit of large lattice coordination number the expectation values can be evaluated exactly for general Hubbard-type models for all interaction strengths and band fillings. The third lecture covers the application of the theory to ferromagnetism of nickel. After a discussion of the nickel problem, multi-band Hubbard models and Gutzwiller wave functions are introduced and parameterized. The favourable comparison between the results from Gutzwiller theory and a large number of experiments shows that correlations play an important role in itinerant ferromagnets.
We review the recently proposed extension of the Gutzwiller approximation, M. Schiro' and M. Fabrizio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 076401 (2010), designed to describe the out-of-equilibrium time-evolution of a Gutzwiller-type variational wave function for correlated electrons. The method, which is strictly variational in the limit of infinite lattice-coordination, is quite general and flexible, and it is applicable to generic non-equilibrium conditions, even far beyond the linear response regime. As an application, we discuss the quench dynamics of a single-band Hubbard model at half-filling, where the method predicts a dynamical phase transition above a critical quench that resembles the sharp crossover observed by time-dependent dynamical mean field theory. We next show that one can actually define in some cases a multi-configurational wave function combination of a whole set of mutually orthogonal Gutzwiller wave functions. The Hamiltonian projected in that subspace can be exactly evaluated and is equivalent to a model of auxiliary spins coupled to non-interacting electrons, closely related to the slave-spin theories for correlated electron models. The Gutzwiller approximation turns out to be nothing but the mean-field approximation applied to that spin-fermion model, which displays, for any number of bands and integer fillings, a spontaneous Z2 symmetry breaking that can be identified as the Mott insulator-to-metal transition.
The effect of electron correlations in the infinite-dimension (d=∞) Hubbard model at finite temperatures has been investigated with the use of a theory which was recently proposed by the present author generalizing the slave-boson functional-integral method. Sublattice magnetizations, double occupancies and band-narrowing factors are computed as functions of the interaction, U, and the temperature, T. Calculated results are exact in the limits of U→0 and U→∞, and in the limits of T=0 and T→∞ they are expected to be very accurate owing to the nature of our mean-field-type theory for infinite-dimension systems. Similarities and differences between the calculated results for d=3 and d=∞ are also discussed.